The Hardest Thing I've Had to Learn About Publishing

One thing I did not expect to learn about when I decided to publish my book is how much, desperately, I would HAVE have to learn PATIENCE.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Here is a list of things you have to be patient about:
1. Getting through your first draft:
When you have ideas in your head, and maybe they're all jumbled up or maybe they're in a specific and planned order, you want to get them down quickly or you feel like they'll blow away in the wind.  But it takes time, and sometimes it does blow away with the wind and you stare at your computer screen with major writers block.  And sometimes you have to watch the kids or clean the house or, you know, shower.

2.  Your first draft will never be good enough:
When you finish the last sentence of the first draft you can't help but think, "Brilliant!  Georgous!  I just wrote the best book that's ever been written."  Believe me, you haven't.  What you think you've written is not what's actually on paper and you must revise revise revise.  Don't even bother sending it to anyone, not even your mother.  Edit it first and then send it to your beta readers.

3.  You have to figure out how to portray with words the story that is in your head:
Have you ever read a book that is a decent book but needs just a bit more editing?  I have.  In fact, recently I read a book where the whole plot of the book is about a boy and a girl who, after years of desire, finally decide to get married.  And then, suddenly the guy does something bad and now she can't trust him and they don't get married.  And the last chapter is about her getting married to this guy's best friend.  What?!  So why wasn't the book about their story?
One thing I have to work really hard on is writing.  Haha, I know that sounds funny, but listen, I am a good storyteller.  I've got great stories in my head.  But actually using words instead of ideas is a different thing altogether.  So you may think you've written a good story, but really you have to have other people's opinions to find out if you've been able to put down on paper what's really going on in your head.

4.  As soon as you hit 'Publish', hoards of people will not rush out to buy your book.  No matter how many friends and family you have:
Unfortunately, just because it's easier these days to publish, doesn't mean that people will buy your book.   I remember reading a great article by Brandon Sanderson.  He'd written 8 books and sent queries out and, after no word from agents, was feeling very discouraged.  But he pushed through his discouragement and started writing the next one.  And, finally!, an agent called him about his manuscript and wanted to buy it immediately--a whole year after he sent out his manuscript.
I'm so grateful that I didn't have to wait so long to publish TRISTEN.  However, even though you don't have to wait forever to get noticed by an agent (if you're self published), you still have to pay your dues getting noticed by readers.

5.  Amazon is like the popular girl at school who doesn't even know your name.  Yet:
This was one thing I wasn't sure about when I started writing.  I thought that Amazon would help market my book.  And only when when a sweet friend and author opened up about her experience did I realize that they don't really.  I decided to publish anyway.  I must be a masochist.

6.  Marketing is pretty much pointless until you have a few books out (unless you write nonfiction):
I've got some great ideas in mind for marketing, and would love to attend some conferences, but I think it's kindof silly to pay money to market 1 book, when I can pay the same amount of money to market 3 books.

7.  You have to publish your books in order:
Ever since I wrote the first book in the TRISTEN series, Book 4 has been screaming at me to write it.  But dang it, I have to write the others first cuz I'm not sure what exactly is going to happen before then.  And now that I'm done with the second one, the third one is jumping up and down, "My turn!" it screams.  But, once again, I'm in the middle of writing Book 2 and 1/2, which is a novella and is important to have a preface (in my mind) of Book 3.  So even though I've got major plot points and action scenes just dying to come out, I MUST WAIT.

So if you think that you're going to spit out a book and become an instant success, there is a small possibility that you just may.  However, don't get discouraged if you don't.  What percentage of authors attain that kind of success that quickly?  I can really only think of one or two.  And yet, there are so many out there who are successful, so don't give up, keep writing, and just BE PATIENT.

My name is Fleur.  And this is my blog.

Self Publishing vs Traditional (My Journey, so far)

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist and work with dolphins.  As I grew older, I wanted to be a lawyer and then when I decided that I didn't want to do that, I discovered that my true passion was International Affairs.
Notice that not once did I say I wanted to be an Author?
I never wrote much as a kid.  Occasionally I wrote poems, but they were more an expression of my emotions that go in my journal and not something written for others to read.
The story of Tristen... well, I don't like to put it like that, "The Story of..." Rather, I feel like it's more like:
Tristen came to me.  Because really Tristen is very much a real part of me, probably a manifestation of something in my subconscious, but the person, Tristen, is real.  And when I don't write about him, give him his story, he bugs me.

So anyhow, I never really gave it much thought if I would try to find a publisher or not.  When I decided to be serious about publishing TRISTEN, I had to decide which route to take.  If you know anything about me at all, it's that I like to research things to death on the internet.  So I read and read and read.  I decided to give a querying a try (for those of you who aren't sure what a query letter is, it's basically a letter convincing an agent that they will like your story and want to sign you on).  I found 2 particular agents that I was interested in, both extremely busy and very well known in their industries.  I queried one of them, he (very nicely) told me that it wasn't his thing and we both moved on.  I queried a couple more agents, without success, and that was that.
You see, this whole thing wasn't really the route I wanted to go.
I didn't like bugging agents, being the desperate author, trying to get a book deal.  That's just not MY thing.
So I decided to self publish and haven't looked back.
 Later on, I read an article where some emails had been read that were written by elite book agent that, embarrassingly, joked between 2 assistants who had BATCHED rejected authors, without even looking at their query letters.  They were found out when one of them had hit "reply all" on accident, replying to all the authors they had just rejected.  Whoops!
For me, being able to do everything, good or bad, is comfortable.  I like not having to wait a whole year after my book is complete to publish it, having complete control over my cover and title.  I love not having to deal with snobby assistants (usually I find the assistants are much more snobby than the agents themselves -- do those guys even get paid?)
I especially love having to work hard, even thought it might look easy, it's not, and really knowing that I'm accomplishing something I really want.
This might not be the route for you, many authors are both self pubbing and using publishers these days, and you have to do what is the most comfortable.  What works for you is always the best.

My name is Fleur.  And this is my blog.

Do you hate that Amazon doesn't let you track your marketing?

I'm hoping that one day (in Fairyland) Amazon will let us track where our sales come from.  It seems like a logical step for everyone, don't you think?  The only disadvantage would be that it puts zombie marketing out of business.  Oh wait…
Anyhow, I've come up with a little work-around in the meantime.  It still isn't a perfect solution, but at least it's something.
Become an Amazon affiliate for your own books.

When you provide links to buy your book with XXX blogger, marketer, etc, provide your affiliate link and then you can track how many sales you obtain.  Of course, this works only if they allow you to provide your own link.  And if you're using more than one company at a time then give the link to the one you want to experiment with the most.

It's completely legit from Amazon's POV, which is always a bonus that you don't have Amazon working against you.  Plus you are paid a little extra for your book, which is just frosting on the cake.

Does Amazon's Hot List help out?

So, as many of you may know, I released the pre-order of my (amazing!) debut novel, The Last Seeker.  That is the day I became a pusher.  I pushed my friends, I pushed my family, I pushed the people who read this blog, I pushed any one and everyone to purchase my book.  I priced it low ($1) so I wouldn't feel bad about asking them ("even if you don't like my genre - just buy it!!") so that I could get on one of Amazon's list.  This is supposed to be the magic list that, once you're on it, it will bring you book to height-dom and everyone will see it and will be compelled to buy it because it's on that list.

Well, guess what?? I made the list.  I mean, I couldn't believe it.  I didn't think I would, honestly, and didn't check until a few days after I released it, and to my surprise, there it was.  (Did I mention that everyone else on the list has more than one book out, i.e. an already established fan base)

See, there I am at #7

Isn't that soo cool!!?? I'm way excited.

However, the question begs, is it helping me sell more books.  And the answer is
… it's hard to tell.

My numbers have not gone up exponentially.  And Amazon doesn't tell you who  bought your book (I'm sure that's a huge privacy issue) so I don't know if it's just my friends, etc buying it, or if I've made some sales from being on the list.

So here are some things to think about.  This list is: Hot New Releases in new and future Teen & YA Historical Fiction.  Why haven't my sales jumped by being on the list:

1. No one actually looks at this list.  

2.  No one scans through the 'historical fiction'.  They're all too busy looking at the romance, paranormal or lit sections.

3.  My book cover isn't good enough compared to all the others.  (I wish there was a way I could see how many people click on my book vs how many buy it)

4.  My blurb isn't interesting enough to get people to buy it.

5. People are impulsive.  They want to read now, not in the future.  If they've never heard of me before, they don't want to pre-order and wait.  They think, they'll remember to come back later.  

It could be any one of these things or a combination of these things, who knows.  I'd have to experiment to actually find out, any many of these things I can't experiment with (don't think Amazon would release any numbers based on my simple, "I would like some more, please." :D).

One point that I'm trying to say is that, if you don't make it to the 'list' then it's okay.  We don't always need to have everything off the "I'm doing a perfect job promoting my book" list in order to be successful.   

In any rate, I'm just happy to be on it.  I am thankful for what I have right now and that's good enough for me.

This is Tristen.  Hero in my novel.